A Current Affair report on Olympic medallist is flawed: ACMA

Tabloid television program A Current Affair has been found by the broadcasting watchdog to have breached accuracy, privacy and complaints-handling codes in its report on Olympic gold medallist Neil Brooks.

In a 19-minute segment aired in March of last year, reporter Amanda Paterson – a former colleague and friend of Brooks – confronted him on camera and called him "a disgrace to Australia".

She told viewers she was on a "race around the world exposing the swimming superstar's scandalous sins" and claimed Brooks had "dozens" of victims in four countries, resulting in "millions and millions in missing money".

Neil Brooks at the 1986 Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Getty Images

In its investigation into the story, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that A Current Affair had "insufficient evidence to support its claim that [as the segment went to air], police in Australia, the United States and France were investigating allegations of fraud against the former swimmer and his wife".

ACMA found the program breached the privacy of Brooks' wife by showing her driver's licence, including her address, on camera. It also determined that A Current Affair (ACA) did not provide a sufficiently "substantive" response to Brooks' complaints.

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However, the watchdog found that other statements about alleged fraudulent dealings did not breach accuracy obligations, either because they were not considered "factual material" or because the evidence provided by Brooks and ACA was inconclusive.

The watchdog said ACA had accepted its findings and will acknowledge them on its website. The program has also trained staff on how to correctly handle complaints. No other requirements or penalties will be imposed.

When investigating complaints about accuracy, ACMA does not seek to determine the objective truth. Rather, it examines whether the relevant claims can be substantiated.

A Current Affair's report on Brooks alleged the swimming champion lived "a charade of a life" involving multiple names, altered bank documents and false claims he had written songs for country music star Carrie Underwood.

Paterson referred to Brooks' partner Linda, a former contestant on the Channel Seven game show The Mole, as "his B-grade reality TV star wife" and described the couple as "the poisonous pair".

Undercover cameras trailed Brooks as he went about his daily activities, with Paterson narrating: "Here he is at the shops wanting to buy a $2 can of beer – but he can't scrape together $2 in change from his pockets. He rides home and returns later to buy that single can of beer."

In a previous report on Brooks, set to the theme music from Underbelly, Paterson chartered a helicopter to get footage of his gated home on the Gold Coast and branded him a "monster".

She told viewers: "This story has been a difficult one for me to tell. Brooksie and I used to be workmates. But as you've seen, to him, mates don't mean much. In fact, friendship is what he and Linda use to hunt down innocent people and prey on them."

The former "Mean Machine" team member is no stranger to controversy. In the 1980s, he made headlines after a physical confrontation with a team official. Later, he was suspended for drinking 46 cans of beer on a flight.